County Officials to Increase Push to Keep State Hospital Open

County leaders vowed Tuesday to increase lobbying efforts to keep Camarillo State Hospital open as a mental health facility despite a new state report--due out today--that recommends closing it.

The state Department of Mental Health is set to release a report to the Legislature that concludes that the hospital should close by July 1997 because of a decreasing patient population and rising treatment costs.

The state Department of Developmental Services also planned to issue a report today that confirms the agency’s desire to transfer nearly 500 patients with developmental disabilities to other state psychiatric institutions to cut costs.

The reports come about six weeks after Gov. Pete Wilson suggested that the 60-year-old institution be closed, in part because it now costs the state more than $100,000 annually for each patient treated there.

Led by Supervisor John K. Flynn, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors last week endorsed the concept of admitting more mentally ill criminals to Camarillo State Hospital as a way to shore up its declining patient population.

Under that plan, the hospital would be operated by the Department of Mental Health. Today’s report appears to cast doubt on the viability of that scenario.

Flynn downplayed the report’s recommendations Tuesday, saying county leaders and others are forming a task force in efforts to preserve the hospital.

“I think that the governor ordered [the two departments] to produce these reports,” Flynn said. “That does not mean these two departments support all these things. I think that professionals who work with people with disabilities and the mentally ill would want to keep the programs functioning here in Ventura County.”

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Officials fear that the hospital’s closure would damage the local economy. The hospital has about 1,500 employees on its annual payroll of $80 million.

“I would prefer that the report would say that we should keep this as a hospital and keep the appropriate people there,” Supervisor Susan K. Lacey said. “I think we must continue our efforts to lobby the state. Our efforts are even more heightened with this report coming out.”

State officials would not comment on specifics of the report because it had not yet been distributed to legislators. But Nora Romero, a state Department of Mental Health spokeswoman, said the Legislature had requested the report last year.

“This gives the Legislature an idea of what we think the future is of the state hospitals,” she said. “It is background information for the Legislature as they go through the budget process.”

Romero said the report merely contains recommendations on the future use of state hospitals, not mandates.

The Legislature is expected to review a third report, which outlines details of the possible closure of Camarillo State Hospital, by April 1.

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Brian Bowley, president of the local chapter of the California Assn. of Psychiatric Technicians--which represents many of Camarillo State Hospital’s employees--said the reports were simply generated to meet legislative procedures. Bowley also supports a plan to increase the number of mentally ill prisoners at the hospital.

“Even if they were 99% sure they were going to convert the hospital [for treating more mentally ill prisoners], they need to have a plan for closure on the table by April 1,” he said.

The Developmental Services report notes that Camarillo’s fixed costs per patient are expected to be the highest of all California developmental centers by 1999. It proposes sending mentally ill patients committed by the courts and other patients with developmental disabilities to three treatment centers around the state.

The Department of Mental Health report suggests moving the 384 patients it sends to Camarillo to Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk.

Charlotte Craven, a Camarillo city councilwoman, said she believes that the state has already made up its mind, and she backs an effort to find alternative uses for the site.

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“I don’t want criminals here,” she said. “The bottom line is I think that the decision has been made to move developmentally disabled patients out.

“I think it is the best site for a university.”

Although county supervisors support bringing more prisoners to Camarillo State Hospital, they oppose bringing so-called sexually violent predators as a way to keep the facility running.

Some state officials have suggested that importing sex offenders could be the only way to guarantee that the hospital would have enough patients to remain cost-effective.

The hospital already treats about 260 mentally ill criminals, and Flynn said he would fight to add more of those patients--except for sex offenders--as a way to keep the hospital open.

“We are going to put on every pressure and make every move that we can,” he said. “But ultimately, it is the state that makes the final decision.”